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Monday, December 18, 2006

Parking: an alternative

Here's another article in today's Democrat-Gazette worthy of comment, though it's not available on their free site. It's about the various ideas under consideration to provide free parking to all county employees.

No word is given to a worthy alternative -- doing nothing, rather than sticking taxpayers with the huge cost of paying for convenient free parking for a largely desk-bound workforce. Sounds Grinch-like, I know.

But I am reminded of when, to keep the Dept. of Human Services downtown, nothing would do but to build a huge parking garage, with enclosed walkway, so the giant office force could commute from faraway places and never set foot on the actual earth of LR before returning to those faraway suburbs. It was an insult the rest of us who work downtown, I always thought.

If government would stop continuing to provide aid and comfort to the commuter crowd -- with ever widening expressways, utility and other infrastructure subsidies for sprawling suburbs and free parking for ever-expanding government work forces -- perhaps people would make different, energy-efficient lifestyle choices. They might live closer to work and walk or ride a bike. Or use public transit. And if they didn't want to do that, well, fine, they can subsidize their lifestyles themselves.

What government also forgets in looking after its employees -- many not highly paid but all beneficiaries of better holiday provisions, health insurance and pension coverage than most private employees -- is the lot of private employees. I suspect my company is typical, maybe even more benevolent than most. We have 50 people in a building with no free parking spaces. We pay for about a dozen spaces for the people who are in and out of the office most often during the course of the day, sales people primarily. Everyone else is on their own. I pay for a deck spot a block or so away. Some park in the handful of free spaces available within a four-block radius. We have a walker from a downtown apartment. We've had bike commuters and the occasional bus commuter. When convenience demands that we park close to the building to dash in for a moment, we pay the inevitable parking tickets.

Why should it be different for a government workforce? The last thing county government needs is a vast sea of parking spaces downtown, such as at the state Capitol, that empties in a rush to faraway places every afternoon on the stroke of 4:30.

More by Max Brantley

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has responded sharply to the lawsuit challenging the legality of the state's new work requirement for Medicaid coverage and also criticizing the online-only reporting requirement. His statement:

The latest numbers from the Department of Human Services show thousands more people did not meet the reporting requirement on work hours in July to meet Medicaid eligibility standards.

Vincent Tolliver, a candidate for Little Rock, mayor, has written legislators asking the Senate Education Committee to ask Education Commissioner Johnny Key to testify about problems encountered by parents on Monday, the first day of school in the state-run Little Rock School District.

Speaking of Donald Trump and in answer to a reader's question: There will be a women's march in Arkansas on Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, as well as the national march planned in Washington.

The Trump administration today approved Kentucky's request for a waiver of Medicaid rules to implement certain changes to its Medicaid expansion program, including work requirements. Next up, Arkansas?

It was not even 24 hours ago that Sophia Said, director of the Interfaith Center; City Director Kathy Webb and others decided to organize a protest today of Donald Trump's executive order that has left people from Muslim countries languishing in airports or unable to come to the US at all — people with visas, green cards,a post-doc graduate student en route to Harvard, Google employees abroad, families. I got the message today before noon; others didn't find out until it was going on. But however folks found out, they turned out in huge numbers, more than thousand men, women and children, on the grounds of the state Capitol to listen to speakers from all faiths and many countries.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and 2nd District U.S. Rep. French Hill have refused to participate in TV debates scheduled in September.

Vincent Tolliver, a candidate for Little Rock, mayor, has written legislators asking the Senate Education Committee to ask Education Commissioner Johnny Key to testify about problems encountered by parents on Monday, the first day of school in the state-run Little Rock School District.

A lawsuit was filed today in the federal court for the District of Columbia challenging Arkansas's work requirement for many Medicaid recipients.

Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights legend, will visit Little Rock Sunday afternoon for a fund-raiser for state Rep. Clarke Tucker, the Democratic candidate for 2nd District Congress against Republican Rep. French Hill.